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Astitva Gyanprakash Vivek attempts to explore and bring centre-stage, the conflicts and complexities as well as apprehensions of a woman. Narrated through the character of Saryu, Astitva takes the reader through the world of the young, immersed in the pleasure of living in the present. The focus is also on manipulative adults for whom either conformity to social values, despite their liberal pretensions, is the desired goal, or, (as in the case of Atul’s father) where corporate interests take precedence over humane values. In retrospect, it is difficult to believe that the response made by Saryu’s father to a matrimonial advertisement was just a game and the result of the natural concern of a father for a grown-up daughter. It was a well-scripted drama of an Indian home, except that in Saryu’s case, it turned out to be a journey through a surreal world. Subjected to a nightmare no woman deserves, she came out of it in fleeting 11 months, a tribute to her courage and fortitude. Probably the interlude provided by the presence of Dev, the junior engineer, in ‘her’ ceramic factory had a little contribution in making those months bearable. There are a number of questions that remain unanswered. How did her father-in-law determine that she, a student of literature and obviously, with no known qualities that constitute managerial skills, will be instrumental in his design to save his ceramic factory from sure destruction at the hands of his psychopath son. Yet, for reasons not very clear, Saryu is chosen to play a part she is neither prepared nor trained for. Even more intriguing is the fact that Atul too agrees to marry her. His inflicting of violence upon his mother is unexplained and irrational. Soon after her marriage, the novel moves at a furious pace between the past that is warm and the present that is cold, calculating and often bizarre. In fact, once the plot gains momentum it becomes abundantly clear that the author has, with dexterity, strung together a number of stories, an art he is fairly good at. There is the college romance of Saryu and Vinay, destined as usual, in the hero becoming the victim of a hopeless situation, or so he believes, and, the heroine marrying a stranger. More touching is the story of Amar Singh ‘Sir’, though its juxtaposition is difficult to justify unless the essential nobility of the character has given strength to Saryu to cope with the horror that awaits her. The flirtation with Dev, the junior engineer, only succeeds in highlighting the goodness of Dev and the unfulfilled desires of Saryu. The protagonist of the story is primarily a product of the lower middle class, aspiring to reach the higher echelons through higher education. The efforts of the author to clothe her and her surroundings with the idioms and fixtures of the rich and the powerful is contrived. However, in her final response to her adopted world, she not only raises herself above herself but also asserts the dignity and independence of womanhood. |
